La Reina de Los Ángeles

SEPTEMBER 17, 2018 – JANUARY 13, 2019

Without the Los Angeles River, there would quite simply be no Los Angeles. While the precise geography is unknown, historians have estimated it’s changed course at least nine times in the first half of the nineteenth century alone. Today, less than 150 years into the life of our young city, a complex infrastructure delivers water not just to our citizens, but to crops, farms and manicured lawns.

La Reina de Los Ángeles will present a discussion of our current relationship with water, using the Los Angeles River as an entry point. Through contemporary art works, documentary films, historic materials and special programming, La Reina de Los Ángeles will explore the history, infrastructure and community around this critical resource.

As part of the exhibition there will be artworks throughout the Gardens. Michael Parker’s Endless Column, a large-scale outdoor sculpture exploring the movement and storage of water is currently in the Center Circle. Organic earthen-forms created by Galia Linn will be on view in the Camellia Forest. Musician Andrew Bird’s Echolocations: River will be featured on the gallery’s living roof.